Radio recording

     We have recorded a lot of topics for the composition class recently.  Although it was not the first time I used the technology to combine sounds with the power-point, I still felt new. This was an excellent chance to learn a lot of things at the same time.  

     After this activity, I've learned how to use radio equipment, how to turn the article into a dialogue, and how to combine traditional writing and audio technology together. Learning a lot about electronic systems in today's world is essential because technology changes quickly, so learning to use this stuff is an experience and a skill for the future.

Prayers for Bobby

     I went to the council center to see a great movie this night.  This movie was a True story of Mary Griffith, gay rights crusader whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance. Based on the book of the same title by Leroy Aarons.  

     To face the fact that I have a gay son was difficult, and I would ignore this fact.  I maybe would do the same thing as the mother in this film has done. However, I would start to realize what is a gay or a lesbian although that may take me a long time to understand and accept it.  I think that this is what parents should do if they have a gay son or a lesbian daughter.  Although it's hard to totally understand the differences between a homosexual person and a heterosexual person, we ought to start our new steps of understanding in this generation!

15 Fascinating Facts About Ancient Egypt

When I surfed the net to find something interesting, I was appealed by a special article about some amazing facts about Ancient Egypt. Ever since childhood, I have been fascinated with everything relating to Ancient Egypt. Some amazing facts are as follows:

1. A Pharaoh never let his hair be seen – he would always wear a crown or a headdress called a nemes (the striped cloth headdress made famous by Tutankhamun's golden mask (pictured above).  I loved approaching those kinds of nemes in some Ancient Egyptian exhibitions, although sometimes they would scare me when I was little.

2. Egyptian men and women wore makeup – eye paint was usually green (made from copper) or black (made from lead). The Egyptians believed that makeup had healing power. Originally the makeup was used as protection from the sun – rather than for adornment. Sometimes I would be curious about the reason for making up their faces in ancient Egypt. But, after I looked up this fact, I finally knew that this culture was just like the jade worn in ancient China.

3. It is unknown who destroyed the Sphinx's nose (pictured above). There are sketches of the Sphinx without a nose in 1737, over 60 years before Napoleon reached Egypt and hundreds of years before the British and German armies of the two World Wars. The only person known to have damaged it was an Islamic cleric, Sa'im al-dahr, who was lynched in 1378 for vandalism. Some people would think that was destroyed by aliens or such awesome nature stuff, just like the Crop Circles.

Amazing Photos

     I am always astonished by some amazing pictures in a photo exhibition.  How can those people have such incredible ideas and high skills in photography? I know that many people like to express their feelings through their masterpieces.  Everyone has a unique way of showing themselves! Take me as an example, I love to draw although my drawing should be bettering.

     Sometimes, I surf the internet to find photos that interest me in my free time.  I saw some amazing pictures while I was just over-viewing the web pages. 

     For instance, this photo is a person's personality.  Maybe he/she is a person who behaves coldly, but has a passionate heart! (picture 1)  Also, the man in the picture may want to tell something to any other people, but he can.  He must keep it as a secret for different reasons.

Pic. 1

Pic.2

  

Why I want to be a exchange student

Why I want to be an exchange student?

    I hope to dig deeply into different kinds of me next semester. After much thinking with my family, I decided to participate in the exchange student project to realize this goal. I would like to study my language profession and other courses from different fields, such as cultural history, business, geography…etc. 

     I would like to see a different study attitude from Taiwan through this exchange. I think that maybe I would study harder after stimulating by the students there and bring a good study atmosphere back to Taiwan. I will determine my direction and learn more after this unique experience.

The Music Concert

      My friends and I went to a music concert thrown by the school to celebrate the school's birthday! The Brasil Guitar Duo is famous for its collaborative program and the high skill of playing guitars.  My favorite song was the first one, "A. Piazzolla: Zita", which remained a very smooth rhythm in the first part.  Also, the song "J. Luiz: Casa Forte & Zanzibar" was a reel song that relaxed me. 

     The performers on the stage were so kind and friendly, and they were all smiling happily at everyone.  Because of the performers' excellent performance, we want to take a picture with them.  Fortunately, I also got two signatures from them!

two signatures

           

Our English courses

   I get a few e-mails yesterday, and we already had seven kids who want to join our activities.  We will design a course about some exciting stories for the kids.  For this excuse, I surfed the internet to find some interesting stuff. I want to say something critical because sometimes the words are nonsense in storybooks for kids. Maybe that was because I CAN'T understand the true meaning in the storybooks for kids, but I've learned one man who can combine an exciting story for kids and the true meaning (POLITICS) in the English literature class.  That was Johnathan Swift, who wrote "Gulliver's Travel." His story was quite excellent, and I was very respectful of him. 

     I thought that if every children's literature author were like Greg(the main character in the Diary of Wimpy Kid---The Last Straw p.20), the literature would die because his story was nonsense!

     

The amazing food weigh in America

     Yesterday, we watched a film about the report of eating MacDonald's every meal for 30 days. I was really shocked by the appetite of the Americas because they always eat the "SUPER SIZE" one, which I haven't seen in such a large size in Taiwan before. The result was really harmful to our bodies, especially our livers. I was very respectful of the main character in this film because I can't stand the same food for 3 meals a day. I think that if I were him, I would die very quickly. How could he have the courage to use his own body to do this terrible experiment! Due to this film, I would not eat fast food for a long time afterward.

Strange Hobbies

We learned to write an essay about our hobbies, but my friends and I even did not know the true meaning of HOBBY at that time.  To know more about hobbies, I have surfed the net to find some information, and of course, I found something interesting!  Here are two strange hobbies several people have:

1. Ghost Hunting: Ghost hunting is quickly becoming one of the most popular hobbies in the US. Thanks to shows like "Ghost Hunters" on the SciFi network, amateur ghost hunters are gathering in haunted locations to try to record any sort of evidence on tape or photo.

2. Playing With Toads: A person likes to combine two different kinds of things, such as toads and anything else.

Vespa basalis

     I have heard many news reports that the vespa basalises attacked people in the mountain areas and how dangerous they were, although they might not attack people actively. I have heard that three vespa basalis appeared in Olivia and Tim's offices. Olivia said that the bees would be blown by the unusually strong wind. It was so horrible that this kind of insect would be around us! I felt so scared, and worried that the bees would be blown to somewhere nearby me. 

     Although I like to close the nature, I still would not be too close to them because I must to consider the risk. To me, we should respect the nature and protect the habitats of the creatures in the nature, but we must also understand to protect ourselves and to consider the risk of touching them.

Abrams: 7 ways to go green in your small business

I have read a news on the USA today before, and it was about how the small businesses can be more greener. That would make them reduce the waste of the energy ,and make more profits.

There are 7 good ways to make the companies greener that are as follows:

1. Go after waste aggressively: Examine every aspect of your business to be more efficient, use fewer resources, and cut waste.
   
   
2. Reduce commutes: The biggest energy consumption comes before anyone even arrives at the office, so the boss could let the employees to go to work by bikes or take buses…etc.
   
   
3. Reduce "vampire" energy drain: Turn equipment fully off before you leave every night.
   
   
4. Bring lunch: Make it easy for yourself and employees to eat at work instead of driving to a nearby restaurant or fast-food outlet.
   
   
5. Go to the cloud: Internet-based rather than on-premise software applications can be green.
   
   
6. Use environmentally friendly products: Choose recycled and nontoxic products whenever possible.
   
   
7. Buy a hybrid or electric car or truck: Make energy efficiency a priority, and the gasoline is cheaper than other trucks.

According to this article, it is the trend to be greener for some small businesses, and not just keep pursuing profits anymore. The businesses also care about fame and environments in today's world. It's wise to It'sreen in the business regardless of the political or environmental philosophy because that could win a lot of respect and support and a good reputation. Therefore, going greener is an excellent strategy for running a business.

Weird food in Laos

     I love to watch travel programs on TV. This time, the host went to a country in Southeast Asia called Laos. In the TV show, the host had to try many kinds of strange food that the people there often takes as delicacies or delicious desserts. The most impressive thing the locals introduced was a kind of sauce called "Bullshit Sauce."  

     Many foreigners (including me) would feel disgusting to eat dishes made with poo, but the locals always use the bullshit to make a sauce to dip! The traditional supermarket in Laos also had a lot of weird products, such as fried cockroaches, fried scarabs..., and so on. Although many people don't want to touch these kinds of foods, the foods still are delicious dishes in many Laotian's minds, just like stinky tofu. To me, stinky tofu is a very delightful dessert in Taiwan.

  

The exponent of the beasts---Irene

      I have been crazy about Japanese animation since junior high school.  I do not reduce my passion for watching cartoons, although I am already an "adult." Reading comic books or watching cartoons are not childish behaviors because there are still a lot of animations that are very meaningful or just appropriate for adults.  I'd like to introduce an energy which I finished recently. 

     The story is about a girl named Irene making a lot of effort to let the environment between the human race and beasts (in the series called KING BEAST & FIGHTING SNAKES) stay peaceful.  This animation is really a good one that makes us think about animals and wars.                                       

 This animation was translated from a famous novel.

A Hong Kong film: Mr. Zombie

     Last semester, we had a Role Play, and I acted as a Chinese Taoist Priest.  Due to this reason, I surfed the internet to find an old Hong Kong film about the relationship between Chinese Zombies and Chinese traditional Taoist Priests.  I observed their customs and stage properties and tried to act like a Taoist Priest.  Although I would be afraid of watching these series when I was little, I still love to manage them.

     Besides, I also heard a piece of bad news that made me feel upset.  That was the death of the famous Hong Kong actor in this series, Guan-Ying Xu.  He was a talented comedian in everyone's heart because the character "Wen-chai" impressed those who watched the films.  I thought he would live in everyone's mind as a good actor!                                                             

https://www.chinatimes.com/realtimenews/20200719000025-260404?chdtv 

(about actor Guan-Ying Xu)

                                                                                                         

                                         

Quillpad : Write in your own language

    I found an attractive website recently, a free online typing tool. You can write in 10 Indian languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, etc., with its online editor. For example, type 'aap kaise hain' in the Quillpad editor, and it will convert it directly into the Devanagari script. Although I could NOT write or read any Indian words, I still try to use this website to learn some functional Indian languages because this website was recommended by one of my friends from India before. My friend and I knew each other only through a social website called "OMEGLE."  

    When I was in high school, many of my classmates loved to use this website because they could chat with different kinds of foreigners online. Although I didn't like to make friends online, I still felt happy to meet this good friend. Now, we still always use emails to send something interesting together. It's fun!

https://www.quillpad.in/index.html#.Y-nJ-3ZBxD8
(Quillpad Website)